Monday, August 31, 2015

Hello, all! As I mentioned in my previous post, my family went on vacation earlier this month. We traveled "up north" and visited three different state parks. Today, I'd like to share some of my vacation photos with you.

Traveling north from the Twin Cities, our first stop was at Wild River State Park. At this park we enjoyed taking in scenic views of the Saint Croix River and doing activities in the visitor center. I have even managed to scrapbook my photos from this park visit already!

When we left the Twin Cities, we thought that we had left our library adventures behind; however, we discovered a delightful little library in the Wild River Park visitor center. I love the rough-hewn book shelves with the bark still on them. There was also a hot beverage station for the park's library patrons. I imagine that this cozy book nook is a godsend for campers who experience cold or rainy weather at the park and want to warm up for awhile. However, it was sunny and hot on the day that we visited, so we did not stop to read or have a hot drink. We only stopped long enough to admire the charm of the library.

The weather did turn cold for us later in the trip, when we visited Banning State Park. You can see that instead of shorts and tee shirts we're in long pants and sweaters. I have already scrapbooked this photo as well. I blogged about that scrapbook page in a previous post.

We got rained on lightly during our last park visit, which was at St. Croix State Park. Luckily, this park has a scenic driving path, so we were able to enjoy the park from the car. As you can see from the photo above, St. Croix State Park is a beautiful place for a country drive. I haven't scrapbooked this photo yet, but I hope to get to it soon. I'll be sure to share the finished page with you when it's ready. Until then, take care!

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Hello! It's been busy around here lately, and I have so much to tell you. I want to share some vacation photos with you, update you on my son's library project (yes, he finished!), and show you what I've been making lately. Those will all be future posts, though; today it's time for my monthly de-stashing post. This time around I have a scrap-busting sketch that I drew for you. I don't know how to use any fancy graphics programs, so it is an actual hand-drawn sketch. :)

There is a story behind this sketch. It all began one evening when I was out cropping with a group of friends. I had packed some old paper scraps that I wanted to try to use. Among these scraps I found a tall, thin piece of Pink Paislee house-patterned paper that seemed like a good match for a trio of backyard photos. I put the photos and paper together on a layout, and my friends told me that they really liked the design of my page. I figured that if people like the design IRL (in real life), then it would be a good idea to share the design online as well.

This sketch is very flexible. It works for cards as well as scrapbook pages. You can substitute patterned paper rectangles for some or all of the photo slots if you wish. That's what I did for the Thanksgiving card below; I used up a handful of scraps from a Doodlebug Design 6x6" paper pad.

I hope that this sketch inspires you to create some projects with scraps. Use the sketch however you like and have fun with it.

Supplies: cardstock from Echo Park, Bokeh papers from Webster's Pages, sentiment paper from Bella Blvd, all other papers from American Crafts, stickers & enamel shapes from October Afternoon, tape from Scotch/3M, pen from Foray.

*Squeak, squeak!* That is the sound of me squeaking in with my Berry71Bleu entry, just a few days before the deadline.

This scrapbook page features a photo that is a recent favorite of mine. The journaling lists three things for which I am thankful: my husband (in the photo with me), my son (who took the photo), and all the beauty of nature that our family experienced while on vacation. It was fun to create this bright, sunny page.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Hello! It's time for the next instalment in my son's quest to visit all the libraries in Hennepin County. When last I wrote about this project, my son had visited 27 of the 41 libraries so far. Last month (July) he and I visited an additional six libraries. Would you like to hear a little bit about them? I think that this will be a long-ish post, so you might want to grab a something to sip before we start. Covered beverages, like those pictured above (coffee for me, juice for my son) are allowed in the libraries, so go ahead and choose a beverage, and then we'll get started.

Of the six libraries that we visited, three were in the suburbs, and three were in the city (Minneapolis). Suburban Rogers Library has been one of my favorites so far. Isn't this seating area (pictured above) inside the Rogers library cute? Long-time readers of my blog know how much I like color, and this library is decorated with lots of bright colors!

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokomis_Library

That said, I am really more of a city girl than a suburban girl, so I enjoy getting into Minneapolis to visit libraries like Nokomis (pictured above). The Nokomis library is made with lots of Minnesota sandstone and other natural materials.

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt_Library

Another Minneapolis library that my son and I visited was Roosevelt (pictured above). I've come to notice that people often get sentimental about libraries, and rightly so. I was telling one of my husband's friends about our family's recent library adventures, and he told me that Roosevelt is the library that his mom used to take him to when he was a kid. He fondly described the library and his favorite books that he used to check out over and over again. There is just something about libraries that makes us happy, don't you think so?

The last Minneapolis library that we visited was Linden Hills. Besides visiting the library itself, we also visited a book store in the Linden Hills neighborhood. I mention this because I think that Bleubeard may be interested to know that the bookstore, Wild Rumpus, has three resident cats (plus lots of other animals, too). :)

The last two libraries that we visited in July were suburban ones. I don't have photos of these two library buildings, but I did get some funny photos inside. At the Champlin library you can pick up a summer reading contest form from R2D2. (There is a shelf holding the forms inside his "head.")

For even more fun, you can take advantage of a selfie opportunity at the St. Anthony library. My son and I definitely love our HCL [Hennepin County Libraries]. If we can visit eight more libraries in August, we will have visited them all. Will we achieve this goal? Check back in about a month and I'll let you know...

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Hello! I've finally managed to grab a moment to finish up with my sixth (and last) Summer of Color project, another scrapbook page. The color combo this time around is 2 oranges + 1 blue. Since the only mists that I own (!) are orange and blue, it was an easy choice to create a misted background for the page. For the rest of the page, I went with a fun, eclectic look. Here are a few detail shots.

This is the last year for Summer of Color, so I wanted to be sure to do all the prompts, even though it took me a little longer this year. Thank you, Kristin, for organizing the Summer of Color--it's been great!